Podcasts · Religion & Spirituality · Health & Fitness

How to Train a Happy Mind

Scott Snibbe

300 episodes

The How to Train a Happy Mind podcast brings meditation to modern people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. Each week, host Scott Snibbe and his guests share powerful mind training techniques that go beyond mindfulness to harness our intelligence, emotions, and imagination. Learn how to build a happy mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world through a secular approach to meditation that is based on modern science and psychology, yet grounded in the authentic thousand-year old Tibetan Buddhist tradition of analytical meditation. How to Train a Happy Mind is a project of the nonprofit Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment. Our host, Scott Snibbe, is a twenty-five-year student of Tibetan Buddhism whose teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Snibbe is the author of the popular How to Train a Happy Mind book, and leads meditation classes and retreats worldwide infused with science, humor, and the realities of the modern world.

Episodes page 2 of 6

  1. What Is A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment? #1 [rebroadcast]

    · 18 min

    Five years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment (now called How to Train a Happy Mind) to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditation. We take a secular approach to meditation that…

  2. Guided Drawing Meditation with John Simon Jr. #208

    · 21 min · Episode 208

    In this guided meditation and drawing practice, artist and teacher John Simon Jr. leads us through a series of exercises designed to connect inner awareness with mark-making on paper. Blending Buddhist principles with…

  3. Drawing As Meditation with John Simon Jr. #207

    · 38 min · Episode 207

    On this podcast, we talk a lot about meditation, but it’s far from the only way to connect with the deepest part of yourself and build a stable, joyful mind. There are so many other paths to reach that same inner…

  4. Guided Meditation on Pleasure #85 [rebroadcast]

    · 23 min

    How can we use pleasure in our meditation practice? Buddhism offers specific techniques for meditating on pleasure as a way to deepen our qualities of concentration, fearlessness, loving-kindness, and even our…

  5. Pleasure and Buddhism: Food, Sex, and Netflix on the Path to Enlightenment #84 [rebroadcast]

    · 29 min

    Pleasure is often viewed as a hindrance to the spiritual path, a hotbed of craving and attachment, but what if we told you that pleasure can actually be a positive part of the spiritual path, a portal to love and…

  6. Meditation on Falling in Love with the Future—Rob Hopkins #206

    · 15 min · Episode 206

    In this imaginative and hopeful episode, Rob Hopkins—founder of the Transition movement and author of How to Fall in Love with the Future—guides listeners through a vivid meditation envisioning the year 2030. Drawing…

  7. How to Fall in Love with the Future—Rob Hopkins #205

    · 45 min · Episode 205

    Rob Hopkins is one of the people doing the most to assure that humanity has a healthy, thriving, and happy future. I was blown away by his new book, How to Fall in Love With the Future, which describes a radical new…

  8. Meditation for Angry Parents #204

    · 27 min · Episode 204

    This episode turns to one of the most universal human struggles: anger. Scott Snibbe explores how Buddhist psychology defines anger as a delusion: an exaggeration of the negative that blinds us to the good and fuels…

  9. Loving Our Parents, Loving Our Children #76 [rebroadcast]

    · 36 min

    Host Scott Snibbe offers touching personal stories and a meditation on how to best love our parents and our children using powerful Buddhist teachings and techniques on understanding, listening, and compassion. Episode…

  10. Emptiness of Self Guided Meditation with Geshe Sherab #203

    · 27 min · Episode 203

    Join Geshe Sherab for a deeply reflective guided meditation on the emptiness of self—one of the core insights of Buddhist wisdom. Gently explore how the sense of “I” arises, appears, and ultimately dissolves under…

  11. What is Emptiness? with Geshe Sherab #202

    · 33 min · Episode 202

    We’ve reached the last in our series of episodes this year on Buddhism’s six perfections. The final perfection is described as emptiness, wisdom, or insight. These are all ways of naming the indescribable experience of…

  12. Full Awareness of Breath Meditation with Larry Ward [Memorial]

    · 6:27

    This rebroadcast episode is in honor of the recent passing of Dr. Larry Ward. May his wisdom live on. *** Dr. Larry Ward—student of Thich Nhat Hanh and author of America's Racial Karma—leads a short but powerful…

  13. Healing America's Racial Karma with Larry Ward [Memorial]

    · 53 min

    This rebroadcast episode is in honor of the recent passing of Dr. Larry Ward. May his wisdom live on. *** Scott talks with Dr. Larry Ward, a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, and author of America's Racial Karma. His book…

  14. What Happens When You Die? #58 [rebroadcast]

    · 23 min

    What happens when you die? No one knows for sure. But the Tibetan Buddhist system describes a precise series of steps that our consciousness may experience as we die, which we can explore in a meditation to probe the…

  15. Where Did I Come From? #57 [rebroadcast]

    · 33 min

    The idea of past lives may not make sense, and isn’t scientifically verifiable. But still, the question of what we might have been before our conception is one worth asking. Where did I come from? Episode 57: Where Did…

  16. AI and Enlightenment with Dr. David Kittay #201

    · 50 min · Episode 201

    Dr. David Kittay stands out as one of the most expansive, intelligent, creative, and warmhearted thinkers of our time. His course at Columbia University, Technology, Religion, Future, is often described as…

  17. Is Enlightenment Possible? #200

    · 49 min · Episode 200

    We can't believe this is our 200th episode! For this special occasion, we wanted to share a talk and meditation Scott Snibbe offered in our Train a Happy Mind community a couple of weeks ago called “Is enlightenment…

  18. The Warm Heart of Awareness: A Meditation with Ven. René Feusi #199

    · 12 min · Episode 199

    Today we’re sharing a guided meditation from the wonderful Venerable René Feusi (Scott Snibbe's long-time teacher). Settle in, find a comfortable seat, and let René’s clear, grounded guidance open the warm heart of…

  19. Concentration Makes Us Happy! with Ven. René Feusi #198

    · 49 min · Episode 198

    It turns out that many of the greatest living Buddhist teachers are also some of the hardest to receive teachings from. Lacking ego, they have no need to promote themselves. This is the case with Scott's closest…

  20. 20 Minute Path to a Happy Mind Guided Meditation #197

    · 23 min · Episode 197

    This 20 minute guided meditation comes from the sequence Scott shares in the How to Train a Happy Mind podcast and book. The stages are based on the Tibetan Buddhist lamrim, which was created more than a thousand years…

  21. Joyful Effort: A Guided Meditation with Tenzin Chogkyi #196

    · 17 min · Episode 196

    Welcome to this guided meditation on accessing joy with Tenzin Chogkyi. In this practice, we’ll take time to settle the body, connect with the breath, and gently open to the feeling of joy. Episode 196: Joyful Effort:…

  22. Beyond Bombs: A Meditation on Ending War and Cultivating Peace #195

    · 53 min · Episode 195

    Instead of the episode we had planned to share today, a meditation from Tenzin Chogkyi as part of her beautiful conversation on joy, we're postponing that release by a week. In its place, we're sharing a meditation…

  23. Joy and Enthusiasm—Even When Life's Hard—with Tenzin Chogkyi #194

    · 55 min · Episode 194

    Today's guest is Tenzin Chogkyi, one of our most popular guests, and she's back to talk about another one of the six perfections that we've been talking with other guests about this year. This one is enthusiasm or…

  24. 10-Minute Path to a Happy Mind Guided Meditation #193

    · 11 min · Episode 193

    Scott Snibbe leads a 10-minute guided meditation that is based on the sequence he shares in the How to Train a Happy Mind podcast and book. Many Tibetan Buddhists do this meditation every day. If you don't have much…

  25. The Complete Path to a Happy Mind #192

    · 45 min

    "I'll tell you something. I've learned it's hard work to be happy." Brian Wilson In this special retreat episode, Scott Snibbe guides us through the full path to a happy mind—from appreciating the simple miracle of…

  26. 5-Minute Breath Awareness Meditation with Larry Ward #191

    · 5:43 · Episode 191

    Dr. Larry Ward—student of Thich Nhat Hanh and author of America's Racial Karma—leads a short but powerful breath awareness meditation. Episode 191: 5-Minute Breath Awareness Meditation If you’d like to practice with…

  27. Healing America's Racial Karma—Larry Ward #190

    · 52 min · Episode 190

    Scott talks with Dr. Larry Ward, a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, and author of America's Racial Karma. His book is about how we heal from the trauma of racism, not just as a society, but in our own minds and bodies. In…

  28. The Interdependent Self - Guided Meditation #43 [rebroadcast]

    · 43 min · Episode 43

    Who am I? From the Buddhist perspective, there’s a systematic way of asking this question of who you are in the form of a meditation on the ultimate nature of the self, or "emptiness." This meditation is said to be the…

  29. Who am I? #42 [rebroadcast]

    · 36 min · Episode 42

    Are you your body? Are you your mind? Are you a collection of thoughts, memories, and neural connections that could be uploaded into a computer to live forever? Or are you an old-fashioned soul? This episode probes the…

  30. Mindfulness Awareness Meditation with Susan Piver #189

    · 12 min · Episode 189

    Susan Piver leads a short breath awareness meditation in this week's podcast episode. If you were to go down the Buddhist path, you would start with this practice before starting with visualizations, guru yogas,…

  31. Inexplicable Joy—On the Heart Sutra & Buddhism Without Belief with Susan Piver #188

    · 58 min · Episode 188

    This year, we're using the framework of Buddhism's Six Perfections to guide most of our episodes. Our last one with returning guest and activist Kazu Haga, focused on patience or not returning harm. This week, another…

  32. The Interdependent Nature of Reality #39 [rebroadcast]

    · 27 min

    The Buddhist understanding of how things exist, called emptiness, breaks objects down into parts, causes, and a mind that bundles them into the illusion of a solid, singular, unchanging entity. When we apply this…

  33. From Panic to Peace: A Guided Meditation with Kazu Haga #187

    · 16 min · Episode 187

    When the world feels like it’s unraveling, how do we come back to ourselves? In this gentle, grounding guided meditation, activist and educator Kazu Haga invites us to sit beside our fear—not to fix or push it away,…

  34. Beyond Us vs Them: Transforming Society Through Fierce Vulnerability with Kazu Haga #186

    · 56 min · Episode 186

    This week, Scott is joined by transformative activist and restorative justice advocate Kazu Haga to discuss his new book, Fierce Vulnerability, which rethinks nonviolence as a path to healing and connection. In a world…

  35. Guided Meditation: How Things Exist #38 [rebroadcast]

    · 31 min

    Objects around us ordinarily appear as if they are solid, singular, and separate from us. However, both science and the Buddhist understanding of reality show us that as we examine things more closely, they exist far…

  36. How Things Exist: Emptiness, Dependent Origination, and your Smartphone #37 [rebroadcast]

    · 29 min · Explicit

    The Buddhist view on reality, called emptiness, combines the awe of scientific knowledge with the inner, experiential knowledge that comes from meditation and critical reasoning to arrive at a feeling of…

  37. How to Use Your Phone Mindfully: A Guided Meditation for Digital Wellness—Jay Vidyarthi #185

    · 13 min · Episode 185

    Settle into a mindful state and engage with your phone in this conscious exercise with digital wellness expert Jay Vidyarthi. Use this guided meditation to deeply and mindfully investigate your phone with clarity.…

  38. How to Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology–Jay Vidyarthi on Digital Wellness #184

    · 1 h 17 min · Episode 184

    Are you in control of your technology, or is it controlling you? In this episode of How to Train a Happy Mind, we sit down with Jay Vidyarthi, author of Reclaim Your Mind, a powerful new book released today that offers…

  39. Bitcoin and Buddhism #70 [rebroadcast]

    · 42 min · Episode 70

    What can Buddhism teach us about how Bitcoin works & why it’s so valuable? What can Bitcoin teach us about emptiness, the interdependent nature of reality? Find out in this episode with Scott Snibbe! Episode 70:…

  40. Meditation on Generosity #183

    · 33 min · Episode 183

    Meditate on the four types of generosity according to Buddhism, giving material objects, providing protection, teaching the Dharma, and spreading love. It has an emphasis on the generosity that we may or may not show…

  41. A Buddhist Take on Homelessness & Generosity #182

    · 43 min · Episode 182

    In this episode, I share lesson's I've learned about generosity from my Buddhist teachers, my college girlfriend, and, to start off, my mother on the generosity we choose to share (or not to share) with homeless…

  42. Guided Meditation: Universalizing our Problems and Pleasures #32 [rebroadcast]

    · 15 min · Episode 32

    A guided meditation on “universalizing,” a Tibetan Buddhist mind training technique for transforming our everyday problems and pleasures through love and compassion. Episode 32. Guided Meditation: Universalizing our…

  43. Universalizing: Transforming Pain and Pleasure into Love and Compassion #31 [rebroadcast]

    · 24 min · Episode 31

    One of the most powerful Tibetan Buddhist mind training techniques is universalizing, a practice that transforms everyday pains and pleasures into profound meditations. From arguing with the family to stuffing yourself…

  44. Two Meditations on Emptiness with Dr. Jan Willis #181

    · 22 min · Episode 181

    Esteemed Buddhist teacher and scholar Dr. Jan Willis leads two meditations on emptiness in this episode. One focuses on the emptiness of the I, this pronoun, this belief that we have that we exist, that there is an I…

  45. What Are the Six Perfections? with Dr. Jan Willis #180

    · 49 min · Episode 180

    To kick off the new year we're thrilled to welcome back one of our most beloved guests, Dr. Jan Willis, a trailblazing scholar, inspiring practitioner and powerful storyteller. Dr. Willis guides us through the six…

  46. Meditation on Self-Compassion with Tenzin Chogkyi #179

    · 17 min · Episode 179

    Today’s meditation focuses on self-compassion, inspired by the teachings of Dr. Kristin Neff. Known as the "self-compassion break," this practice is designed to be quick, accessible, and deeply grounding—perfect for…

  47. Self-Compassion with Tenzin Chogkyi #178

    · 34 min · Episode 178

    We are closing out the year with a special guest, Tenzin Chogkyi—a longtime Buddhist practitioner, teacher, and former nun ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. With decades of experience in both inner growth and…

  48. Exchanging Self with Other #177

    · 40 min · Episode 177

    Today's episode features a transformative meditation known as "Exchanging Self." Originally shared with the Train a Happy Mind community, this practice has deep roots in Tibetan Buddhism. For nearly a thousand years,…

  49. What is Compassion? #28 [rebroadcast]

    · 26 min

    Compassion is starting to rival mindfulness as the next most popular up-and-coming form of secular meditation. But what is compassion? Compassion, from the Buddhist perspective, is not just empathizing with others’…

  50. Guided Meditation on Love #26 [rebroadcast]

    · 22 min

    A guided meditation on love, or loving-kindness, the expansive form of love wishing happiness not only to friends and family but to all beings everywhere including our enemies. In the language of Buddhism, metta or…

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